US sprinter Quincy Wilson made Olympic history this summer as the youngest male track and field medalist for the US team – an astonishing feat that came at the expense of his private school education.
Wilson, 16, ran the opening leg of the first qualifying round of the men’s 4×400-meter relay at the Paris Games, becoming the youngest male U.S. track and field athlete to compete in the Olympics. The previous record holder was 17-year-old Jim Ryun, who competed in the 1964 Games.
Wilson was replaced by Raj Benjamin in the final round of the relay on August 10 and was able to watch from the stands at the Stade de France as the US team won the gold medal.
Following the team win, Wilson shared a fun TikTok video showing off his newly won Olympic gold medal. Wilson filmed himself reading a school textbook with a distressed look on his face. He captioned the video, “POV – reading my summer books late because I was at the Olympics.”
– Quincy “Q” Wilson (@QuincyWilson5) 14 August 2024
Wilson is entering his penultimate year at the Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, and has deferred getting his driver’s license to compete in the Games. The teenage track and field phenom twice broke the U18 400-meter world record at Olympic qualifying trials earlier this summer, with blistering times of 44.66 and 44.59 seconds.
Wilson has poked fun at his athletic scholarship status in the past, posting a selfie with a gold medal last week with the caption, “Damn, I actually have school in two and a half weeks.”
“All I know is that I gave everything I had and more,” Wilson said The Washington Post in June after qualifying for Paris. “I can’t go back and be disappointed. At the end of the day, I’m 16 and I’m running times like a grown man.”
